Free Republic

<p>It should be obvious, now, that the young man was a dreamer, a kid with a hole in his heart, searching, a boy trying on various costumes, poses and attitudes.</p> <p>He was looking for that place--perhaps you looked for it too, once--where he could exchange himself, and give himself up to a challenge demanding sterner stuff.</p> <p>It was about great absolutes, apparently, like it is with many intelligent kids, undisciplined, self-centered characters in their own movies, uncertain about what they might become in the future.</p> <p>Some seek to confront that ambiguity with order, finding it in the U.S. military.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) - The father of slain CIA agent Johnny ``Mike'' Spann said Thursday he believes an independent counsel should investigate allegations that someone in the Bush administration exposed a CIA agent's identity, calling such an act ``treason.'' Spann, the first American killed in Afghanistan, died in a prison uprising. His father, also named Johnny Spann, said he is still angry because he feels his son's identity and hometown were revealed before his son's family could be adequately protected.Democrats in Congress, led by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., are calling for a special counsel to be appointed to investigate who exposed...

Today's editorial pages are giddy with delight at the plea agreement reached yesterday in the John Walker Lindh case. Lindh agreed to plead guilty to two charges—aiding the Taliban and carrying explosives while doing so. The bargain was good for everyone. The government dropped all the serious charges, including its claim that Lindh had anything to do with the death of Mike Spann, the CIA officer killed in the prison uprising at Mazar-e-Sharif on Nov. 25. Lindh gets more jail time than the flimsy evidence against him warranted, and the government is spared an embarrassing trial and ugly disclosures about...

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jul 22, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The father of a slain CIA agent said Monday he wants to testify at a sentencing hearing for John Walker Lindh to tell the court the American Taliban was responsible for his son's death. Johnny Spann, father of Johnny Micheal Spann, said in court papers that he was not consulted about the plea bargain that would give Lindh a maximum 20-year sentence. The younger Spann tried to interview an uncooperative Lindh shortly before the government agent was killed in a Nov. 25 prison uprising in Afghanistan. Lindh pleaded guilty...

<p>ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) During the time American-born Taliban John Walker Lindh says he was being held in ''torturous conditions'' and denied access to a lawyer, he was telling his story ''to anyone and everyone who would listen,'' prosecutors said Monday.</p>

<p>Washington -- For the first time, federal prosecutors explicitly accused John Walker Lindh on Tuesday of being partly responsible for the slaying of CIA agent Johnny "Mike" Spann during an Afghan prison uprising in November.</p> <p>In a bluntly worded 32-page motion, the prosecutors said the Marin County man accused of participating in a conspiracy to kill Americans overseas and of providing material support for terrorists can be blamed directly for Spann's death under the law of conspiracy.</p>